Add the Big Stink of '07 to Jimmy Hoffa's whereabouts, Bigfoot and other mysteries of the ages.
Officials on both sides of the Hudson conceded it's getting less likely with each day that they'll ever know why a gassy odor blanketed Bergen and Hudson counties as well as parts of Manhattan on Monday.
"We might never be able to pinpoint the source," said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
While most complaints in the state came from Bergen and Hudson counties, wind records and other clues suggest that the smell started farther south, Jackson said -- somewhere amid the thicket of huge refineries and factories in Bayonne, Elizabeth and Woodbridge, as well as nearby Staten Island.
New York and New Jersey environmental officials continue to share information on possible leads, an improvement from earlier in the week when the two states mostly traded jabs over who was stinkier. But New York thinks the trail is as cold as a dead skunk.
"We're not really pursuing any other line of inquiry," said Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for New York City's environmental agency.
New Jersey's DEP has about 20 workers reviewing industrial emissions and pursuing leads.
The DEP started with 331 industrial targets in New Jersey and has eliminated all but 100, Jackson said. It has checked with the Coast Guard and local rail yards about train or maritime shipments that might have come through the area Monday.
By Tuesday, Jackson said, the department hopes to have checked all of the sites, in person or over the phone. After that, she said, the search would likely reach a "point of diminishing returns."
Despite the dim prospects, Governor Corzine ordered a thorough probe of the incident, Jackson said. That's partly because officials were ticked off that New Jersey so quickly got blamed for the stench.
In the post-9/11 era, Jackson added, the state realizes that mysterious odors can't be taken lightly.
"If there was any chance it was foul play, we owe it to the citizens to let them know that we take very seriously our duty to investigate," she said. "It would be nice at a minimum to be able to say that we know who didn't do it."
In Hudson County, health officials have called off their search, said John Demjanick, a coordinator with the Hudson Regional Health Commission.
The next step? "Wait till it happens again," he conceded. His best guess for a source is a leak at a business that still doesn't realize it was the source.
"Maybe I'm a pessimist. But I think if it happened once, it will happen again," he said. "Hopefully, we'll have better wind conditions and be able to trace it better."
The mystery, though, still bothered him. "When something like that affected so many people," he said, "you worry about it."
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